This article adopts Avery and Bergsteiner's 23 sustainable leadership practices as a framework to examine the leadership practices of the Thai tourism industry. One of the well-known concepts, supported by a lot of research, was addressed by Avery and Bergsteiner's Sustainable Leadership. Although corporate sustainability is an important issue, only a few approaches to corporate sustainability have been investigated in the Thai context.
This case study of a Thai company called Hotelbeds (Thailand) Co., Ltd. therefore adopts Avery and Bergsteiner's concept of sustainable management as an appropriate approach to corporate sustainability. A case study examines business practices and determines whether there is a match between sustainable management practices and those of the company in question. In light of this, Honeybee Leadership is considered to be a possible approach to ensuring the sustainability of the company in the future.
Trusting, sharing and focusing on the same business vision directly contributes to driving the business forward (Avery, 2005).
Key performance drivers: the third level consists of Innovation;
Following the Honeybee leadership, Thailand's oldest university (Kantabutra and Saratun, 2012) focused on long-term aspect, especially development of shared strategic directions, involvement and cooperation in decision-making. Asian industrial conglomerate practiced Heuningby leadership for its sustainability (Kantabutra & Avery, 2013), found that the conglomerate invests for long-term perspective in culture, management development, products and services and others, although the investment will reduce the short-term profits or long-term thinking of succession planning for top management. In Thailand, honey bee leadership's practices via True Corporation (TC) demonstrated the importance of long-term perspective for the company.
They came up with new strategies such as creating a new organizational identity, benefiting the customer and rebranding to achieve the long-term goal. This challenge is very difficult because it takes a lot of time to develop employees' capabilities. When employees' innovation ideas are selected by the company, there will be a reward in return and as part of the performance evaluation.
Maintaining ethical behavior with customers under the motto "the customer is always right", management and employees provide quality products and services and solutions to meet customer needs. The company invested and expanded into the international market such as Hong Kong, Malaysia and Hawaii for its long-term perspective. SCG's strategies and long-term plan include investments for future growth such as R&D, knowledge management and employee management.
Similar to all the above case studies, Theptarin Hospital (TH) adopts a long-term perspective by investing in new public education facilities, prevention of the genetic disease, opening a new market. For example, TH gives importance to internal promotion; a former receptionist turned department manager also develops employees' skills through in-house training available to all employees. All case studies are similar to each other in long-term perspective and investment in its employees as a key for running business.
METHODOLOGYMETHODOLOGY
Methodology
4 HR succession planning How does the company set or plan the career path of employees? 8 Long or short term perspective Management What is the company policy for long term investments; services & product, marketing plan. Give an example HR How do you communicate with employees about the change?
14 The role of Vision in the company Management How you communicate or talk to employees. 17 Team orientation Employees You like to cooperate with others or work in a team environment. 19 Knowledge Sharing and Retention Management How do you share knowledge or any updated information with employees.
22 Self-engagement Employees Are you willing to do the extra work or help other work. The sample is practical, as the interviewees are divided into three groups of managers, employees and customers who are willing to participate in the survey. 14 Vision's role in the company's shared view of the future is an important strategic tool, the future does not necessarily drive the business Practice at a higher level.
Company Background
Adopting the analysis table from previous study, the criteria are used to analyze the data as follows: Most clear means exactly like Honeybee, Moderately clear means somewhat like Honeybee, Least clear means somewhat like grasshopper and Disagree means exactly like grasshopper. Then in 2010, Pacific World (Thailand) was merged with one of the famous inbound tour operators in Southeast Asia, Turismo Asia. Hotelbeds, headquartered in Palma de Mallorca, Spain, was established in September 2001 following the acquisition of Barceló Travel Division by First Choice PLC in 2000.
When TUI Tourism and First Choice Holidays PLC merged in 2007, Hotelbeds became part of the Accommodation and Destination Sector of TUI Travel PLC, the international leisure travel company. The company's products and services include bank accommodation, transfers, excursions, group travel, tour programs and support and also provide online booking solutions for customers.
FINDINGS
Discussion
A middle enterprise like Bathroom Design Company also supports its employees for knowledge and skill training. Hotelbeds does not have the union similar to Theptarin Hospital, Bathroom design, True Corporation and Sa Papers Preservation House, unlike other big companies like SCG and the conglomerate. For example; True Corporation also treats its employees as a family and offers competitive salary, which clearly shows that one manager almost quit working, but he got a satisfactory compensation package.
Sa Paper House allows employees to work from home as it brings happiness to its employees. Hotelbeds has planned for its employees on the career path as one of the business success strategies to maintain and reduce the turnover rate; similar to other companies. Not only large companies such as True Corporation and SCG, but also small and medium-sized companies such as University of Thailand and Bathroom Design Company prefer to promote their employees from within.
Hotel beds, offer reasonable benefit for each staff as mentioned in finding which is similar to case study companies. However, True Corporation and conglomerate group support their staff's education includes staff's children in order to create staff retention rate, moreover the education is another way to develop and improve staff's skills and knowledge which can benefit the company in the future. As a result, this change is not 100 percent effective compared to other business enterprises such as True Corporation and conglomerate that share the top management vision directly with employees.
Previous studies found that the organizational culture presented a strong shared value and belief to the employees to create a special atmosphere in the workplace. Employees can submit their ideas directly to the supervisor or management, similar to True Corporation. A happy employee and team orientation at Hotelbeds contributes to creating self-involvement; employees are willing to help team and colleagues to achieve the goal together, found in Thai University, the conglomerate and True Corporation.
Recommendation
Hotelbeds invests in product and service innovation for business competitive advantages through system and work process development. Similarly, all the companies studied focused on innovation by investing in the research and development sector. Every company, including Hotelbeds, focuses on quality production; products and services, efficient work process and quality of employees, increases customer satisfaction and loyalty.
Valuing employees is recommended by True Corporation by offering additional benefits, such as scholarships for employees' children or staff training. This also helps to improve their knowledge and skills. Top team speakers can be developed in multinational companies, but in Thai culture there is still high power distance and respect for seniority. By being honest and avoiding conflicts with customers, Hotelbeds will operate in an ethical manner.
Instead of focusing on short-term profit in the peak season, the company should focus more on the long-term by investing in the development of products and services. Consensus decision-making may develop more, but in Thai culture, employees still need top management to help make decisions. From self-management and teamwork is creating trust and confidence in employees, then self-engagement will follow.
Innovation is also developed through co-creation or brainstorming between staff and management team, while they can express themselves during a team meeting or other activities such as Bathroom Design's “creative Saturday”. The less sustainable concept of sharing a vision for future business is clearly visible in Thai tourism. To ensure sustainability, management must emphasize the company vision and core value for all employees at every meeting.
Conclusion
It was found that the three practices are strongly visible within Hotelbeds, currently the company appears to be strong in self-management and team orientation which can create trust among employees and bring quality of work outcome to serve customers and achieve company goal. A succession plan is developed for employee's career path and personal improvement to increase staff retention rate through collaboration between HR and supervisor in each department. There is no strong evidence to support environmental activities and vision's role in the organization.
Indirect or one-sided communication can deliver an incomplete and misunderstood message, even if there is information exchange through the company's intranet. As far as environmental responsibility is concerned, there are no clear approaches to the continuous development and protection of the environment surrounding the company. The result of this study suggests that the Thai tourism industry supports its organization and business by adopting 23 elements of sustainable leadership, developed by Avery and Bergsteiner, to guide the sustainability of the organization.
This leadership framework enables management to review their sustainable practices and adapt them to become more sustainable. The result also leaves the way open for future study to examine the similarity of other tourism industries in other countries. Sweet Success Beyond the Triple Bottom Line: Bee Practices Lead to Sustainable Leadership at Thailand's True Corp.
